


Karma

by DawnsEternalLight



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman and Robin (Comics), DCU (Comics)
Genre: Comedy, Fluff, Gen, Hiccups, damian has the hiccups and can't get rid of them, funny stuff here kids, stake out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-11
Updated: 2016-08-11
Packaged: 2018-08-08 00:45:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7736509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DawnsEternalLight/pseuds/DawnsEternalLight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Damian has the hiccups and can't seem to get rid of them so Dick decides to take him with him on patrol. The resulting fight is a little funny a little serious and filled with hiccups.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Karma

**Author's Note:**

> This was written or the second day of Dynamic Duo Week 2016 on Tumblr the prompt was "We really need to be quiet but you've got the hiccups"

The noise was tiny, and immediately followed by an irritated growl that caused a bubble of laughter to rise in Dick’s chest. He smothered it with a hand to his mouth as he glanced at his youngest brother. 

Damian’s scowl would have easily taken out the criminals below if he trained it on them, thankfully it was aimed solely at himself, or rather the hiccups that had been plaguing the kid all day. Dick smothered his laughter for two reasons. The first was that they were on a stakeout and silence was necessary, the second was that a laugh from Dick at this juncture of Damian’s war with hiccups would be a one-way ticket into unconsciousness. 

His baby brother had been fighting the hiccups since early that morning, and everyone in the family had borne witness to his growing irritation at them. Jason had tried scaring them away, only to end up with a black eye, and a lesson: Never sneak up on the Bat Brat. 

Tim had tried to distract him from them by starting an argument over whether tea or coffee was the superior drink. It hadn’t cured the hiccups, but Dick had to admit Damian’s passionate defense of tea, being interrupted every other word or so with a hiccup was nearing the top of his ‘cutest things Damian has ever done’ list. 

Duke had managed to convince Damian that holding his breath would do the trick. That resulted in the kid almost passing out. Then Alfred came over with a tray of tea that was ‘designed to cure hiccups’. After a few sips Damian’s aliment had doubled in its ferocity.  

Dick didn’t really have any advice for Damian, his usual treatment was to let them run their course. Bruce had agreed, then cited a time he had them through an entire W.E. board meeting. Neither one’s words seemed to pacify Damian any. 

It wasn’t until Dick had invited him to join him on the stakeout that Damian had even shown a bit of cheer. He was hoping that a little patrolling and fighting would cure his hiccups. So far, it hadn’t done much good, but Dick was sure a good fight would help him at least relieve some of the pent up irritation if not the hiccups themselves. 

They just had to stay quiet long enough for the other group of men to arrive. The goal was to catch both the arms dealers and the buyers, if only Damian could stay quiet enough. Not that he had to worry about Damian being quiet. Like the kid himself, his hiccups were _tiny_. 

Some people have big hiccups that shake their whole bodies and are on par with sneezes, Damian sounded like a mouse. A fact that Dick would never admit to his brother, not if he wanted to stay alive that is. 

“Nightwing, loo-uiccup!” Damian was cut off by another hiccup but Dick got the message he glanced back down at the crowd below them, the ghost of a smile on his face at his brother’s expense. 

The second group had arrived and Dick was starting to wonder if just having Damian with him was a good idea. There were a lot of armed men and women in the warehouse below them. They’d dealt with worse before as Batman and Robin, but Dick didn’t want to needlessly endanger Damian.

“Ready?” Dick’s attention returned to his partner, Damian was poised to throw himself into the fray, there was no way Dick was convincing him to stay behind while they called backup. 

He nodded, “Just be careful, one hiccup literal or otherwise could be dangerous.” 

“If you spend the whole night making hiccup puns I will kill you.” 

Dick shrugged, “It’s part of my charm.” 

“I’d be happy to show you how charming it is.”

“Don’t we have better things to be worrying about?”

 Damian hiccupped, scowled, and launched himself from the rafters with Dick right behind him, this time unable to hold back his laughter. 

Their plan was to have Robin make sure none of the guns made it out of the warehouse while Nightwing wrangled the ringleaders. Everything seemed to be going smoothly, Dick had already managed to knock out a handful of the men he’d been after, and he hadn’t heard any hiccupping coming from Damian in a while. 

Something about Damian’s silence nagged at him, and he turned his attention to look for Robin. His brother seemed to be handling the takedown of the thugs easily, but there was a frown of concentration on Damian’s face Dick wasn’t used to. 

With a start he realized his brother was trying to hold back his hiccups. That never worked, in fact it usually made them worse. It was at that moment that Damian did at last hiccup, the distraction being enough to make him pause for a moment. 

“Robin!” the cry of warning was all Dick had time for as he flung one of his escarma sticks across the room at the thug sneaking up on Damian. His brother ducked at the last second and the stick rammed the man’s face. 

Dick grinned over at Damian who instead of looking pleased had a sudden look of shock. The butt of a gun meeting the back of his knee told Grayson why Robin had been so surprised. His leg collapsed as the gun came sweeping towards his head, this time he caught it. 

The momentum was just enough to make his shaky balance give out and he pulled the thug down to the ground with him into a wrestling match for the gun. If Dick could just get his legs under the guy, he could launch him away, but with the way they’d fallen, he wasn’t sure he’d manage it in time. 

Then Robin was there, a blur of red and yellow that sent the thug reeling away from Dick. He dropped the gun to the side and sat up, regarding the room. The gun shipments were still there, and all the men were either unconscious or had run. 

Damian finished with the thug and stalked over to him, “Never do that again, Nightwing. You put yourself in danger needlessly, I had the situation under control.” 

Dick wanted to smile, usually it was his job to get angry over a mistake, and here his little brother was all fury and angry fists, “You let your hiccups distract you,” it wasn’t angry it was a statement. 

Damian crossed his arms, “If anyone allowed them to be a distraction tonight it was you.” 

Dick ran a hand through his hair, this would turn into an argument if he didn’t stop it now, “Let’s agree that we both let them be a distraction and we won’t again?” 

“I can agree to those terms, besides I think I won’t have to worry about them anymore,” Damian said. 

“Aww, did your fear for my safety scare them away?” Dick teased. 

Damian’s face flushed and he pursed his lips, “Don’t flatter yourself, Nightwing. The adrenaline from the fight seems to have taken care of them.”

“Right.” 

“It did.”

“Mhmm, next you’ll want me to believe that your mad charge was so you could have bragging rights for taking down the last thug.” 

“Nightwing,” it was a warning that Dick was intent on ignoring.

“Or that you concocted the entire hiccup thing just to get a solo patrol with me.”

“Nightwing,” less of a warning and more of a threat this time. 

“Or—” Dick was cut off not by Damian, but by a hiccup of his own, his eyes went wide and he clapped his hands to his mouth, as if that would stop the next one from bursting forth. 

A slow smile crept onto his brother’s face, one that was all victory and held no pity for his oldest brother. As Dick felt another hiccup coming Damian said one word: “Karma.”


End file.
